FIOS versus Comcast?

[Gurm]

So I just got a priority mail dispatch from Verizon.

FIOS is now available in my area.

Currently I get about 6Mb/512kb from Comcast. It's very speedy. I mean, I get about 800KB/sec., actually nearing 1MByte bursts. It's ridiculous. My only complaints are:

1. Limited packet throughput means that yes I have to behave myself with Bit Torrent. Easily done via settings in good clients, and my router helps (upgraded Linksys WRT54G with the custom HyperWRT firmware).

2. Only 512kb upstream.

Now for TEN DOLLARS LESS per month, Verizon is willing to offer me FIOS at 5Mb/2Mb. That's tempting. For the same money I pay now, they'll sell me 15Mb/2Mb!

However, potential drawbacks abound.

1. Verizon suxxorz. I'm not admitting any guilt of any kind in any not-entirely-legitimate activity on 'Teh Intarweb', but Comcast has never even blinked.

2. Verizon DSL especially suxxorz. PPPoE, passwords, sketchy connections... pretty much the norm. I know my router can make most of it transparent to me, but still. Last time I had Verizon I needed to set my PC's MTU to 1400 just to make stuff work. Admittedly that was in Pennsyltucky, but C'MON! My sister-in-law has Verizon DSL here in MA and it bites. It's REALLY slow unless you use MSN Explorer (I don't know HOW they pulled THAT off!) and just generally stinks.

3. FIOS is in revision 1.0, and knowing how these things work I'd essentially be beta-testing the damn thing. They ought to pay ME.

So, thoughts?

[rylan]

Personally I wouldn't trust my broadband to Verizon with their new FIOS. Seen them putting this in my area too, but knowing how crappy their support is (even worse than comcast) if theres a problem, I'm staying away from it. Also as you said, its new so there are going to be issues with it. I haven't had my cable internet go down with Comcast in a long time, and the speeds have held up and keep getting faster. Judging by how Verizon DSL was, I wouldn't go with any of their new services until its been out for a while and you hear more from people who are using it.

[Gurm]

Personally I wouldn't trust my broadband to Verizon with their new FIOS. Seen them putting this in my area too, but knowing how crappy their support is (even worse than comcast) if theres a problem, I'm staying away from it. Also as you said, its new so there are going to be issues with it. I haven't had my cable internet go down with Comcast in a long time, and the speeds have held up and keep getting faster. Judging by how Verizon DSL was, I wouldn't go with any of their new services until its been out for a while and you hear more from people who are using it.

Exactly. At my last location, Comcast was ... touchy. And the place before that. But here it's been nothing but "really f***ing fast" and getting faster all the time.

[Jammrock]

I'd wait for another sucker or two in your area to get it, see what they think, and then decide. There's a local company Called Everest that has been providing an FIOS like service for 3-years (dug their own fiber out to neighborhoods and everything) and it is incredible! The best TV/net/phone provider in the area. Though it's not true FIOS, as the internet connection is coax to the house, and uses traditional cable modem tech.

[Gurm]

I'd wait for another sucker or two in your area to get it, see what they think, and then decide. There's a local company Called Everest that has been providing an FIOS like service for 3-years (dug their own fiber out to neighborhoods and everything) and it is incredible! The best TV/net/phone provider in the area. Though it's not true FIOS, as the internet connection is coax to the house, and uses traditional cable modem tech.

Well Comcast has gone fiber with a lot of areas now, how do you think they're offering 10MBit services some places?

[Jammrock]

never lived in a comcast area, so I don't know anything about their service.

[Dr Mordrid]

Believe me, Comcast sucks. Been there, done that and paid way too much for it.

Our SBC (now ATT) DSL service is fantastic. Give 'em a call and they're right on it. If the service goes down for more than a day or so we get the month credited. Can't complain about that.

For TV we've been using DishNetwork. Cheaper, the wife loves the picture quality and like SBC/ATT the service is very good.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jon P. Inghram]

Been happy with Cox, got the 9/1 package and I've downloaded orthophotos off the Kansas GIS site that ran at a sustained 15 megabit/sec speed.

[Helevitia]

My thoughts: I'd switch just because it's faster. I you don't like it, switch back. End of story.

[Wombat]

My thoughts: I'd switch just because it's faster. I you don't like it, switch back. End of story.

Depends on the Verizon contract. The Comcast ones are pretty lenient in my experience.

[Gurm]

Yeah Verizon is looking for a one-year commitment around here, IIRC.

See right now I get phone (unlimited non-digital local and long distance to USA & Canada) plus Cable (digital multi-tier, music, DVR box) plus Internet (6/512) for around $150/mo. total.

Verizon would cut me a deal on the phone, and the FIOS. But I wouldn't save any money overall.

[TnT]

Just on Slashdot: Verizon to use bandwidth for their own projects

I have Verizon DSL because our phone is through them so we get internet for something like $15 a month. Speeds are good enough and it's not PPoE. The DSL modem was a bitch to setup because it didn't work with a router out of the box, had to search online for instructions on setting its internal configuration. Out of the 3 months we've had it, I had one day where IP address kept dropping. No other known problems, but for $15 a month as long as it works I'll be satisfied.

[az]

What do you people have against PPPoE? All DSL here is PPPoE, and it's reliable, fast, can be used in WinXP without any drivers, is supported by all popular routers, and there are even some tweaked drivers (cFos speed with traffic shaping) for XP.

[Wombat]

What do you people have against PPPoE? All DSL here is PPPoE, and it's reliable, fast, can be used in WinXP without any drivers, is supported by all popular routers, and there are even some tweaked drivers (cFos speed with traffic shaping) for XP.

It's not fast. It's an encapsulated protocol, so it's inherently slower, and the encapsulation reduces your effective bandwidth by 10-15%.

[az]

Yeah, net bandwidth is a bit slower than gross, but it's fast enough. A stable connection with no port restrictions is more important to me than a 10% download speed difference. Only thing I don't like is that our ADSL is very A - even on a 16 Mb line, upload is only 800 kb But that's not the fault of PPPoE.